Why did Hawking warn “don’t reply to alien signals”?

Last October, the newly launched FAST received a suspicious cosmic signal from a source with strong pulse characteristics. After analysis, scientists pointed out that the source of the signal was located in the deep space of the universe more than 1,300 light years away. This set of electromagnetic wave signals was also the first suspicious cosmic signal detected by FAST after its completion.

Once the news was released, the whole world was shocked. Are there really aliens in the vast universe? While people were impressed by the powerful function of my country's radio telescope, some people also thought of Hawking's views on aliens in a documentary on the Discovery Channel. Hawking said that contacting aliens is a very risky thing, and frankly admitted that after aliens visit the earth, humans may fall into the fate of being enslaved by aliens.

Hawking's concerns are not unique. A similar point of view was also pointed out in the novel "The Three-Body Problem" which won the Hugo Award earlier. In the novel "The Three-Body Problem", after Ye Wenjie deciphered the received alien signal, she responded regardless of the warning in the signal, thus exposing the position of the earth in the universe, leading to the invasion of the Three-Body aliens and the destruction of the earth.

Although many optimistic people say that aliens may not be as extreme as the Three-Body people in science fiction novels, many people still worry about this matter - because as early as 1977, humans had already used the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft to carry two copper-plated gold-coated laser discs called "Sounds of the Earth" and human portrait information.

The two records not only contain messages in various languages, but also messages sent to aliens. Moreover, in 2015, the Voyager spacecraft carrying the golden record has flown out of the solar system. Combining the novel "The Three-Body Problem" and Hawking's conclusion, it can be understood that as long as the golden record falls into the hands of aliens, aliens will have basic information about humans. Not only that, the radio signals sent by humans in the past can also help aliens obtain the specific location of the earth in space.

For a while, many people began to worry that the Earth might really be invaded by aliens and eventually destroyed, just like the story told in "The Three-Body Problem". There were also different opinions on whether we should contact aliens.

Humans do not know whether aliens really exist, and we cannot be sure whether aliens are as cruel as the "Three-Body Aliens" in the novel. Therefore, we cannot determine whether Hawking's "do not contact aliens" is correct. But one thing is certain - humans cannot give up exploring the universe and the unknown just because they are afraid of an uncertain alien.

If we really stop exploring the universe because we are worried about alien invasion, this move is tantamount to "throwing the baby out with the bathwater". Moreover, radio has been in use for many years. Even if we don't want to contact aliens, these radio signals are enough to expose our location. Therefore, this worry is completely unnecessary. Today, the Voyager spacecraft has already flown into the solar system with the golden record and cannot be recalled. At this point, instead of worrying about aliens invading the earth after obtaining the golden record, it is better to speed up our exploration of the universe - only the more we know about the universe, the greater our chances of resisting aliens. Moreover, the invasion of aliens is not a short process - you know, it took the Trisolarans more than 400 years to reach the earth from Trisolaran. With such a long time, as long as the method is appropriate, our understanding of the universe can achieve a qualitative leap.

Fortunately, we have not really stopped exploring because of this uncertainty. On the contrary, the corresponding exploration plan was launched as early as 1993: astronomers from 10 countries jointly proposed to build a giant radio telescope array - the Square Kilometer Array (SKA).

Although there is an adjective in the name of SKA - "square kilometer", this does not mean that SKA is a rectangular radio telescope with an area of ​​square kilometers. In fact, SKA is a giant radio telescope array consisting of more than 3,000 smaller dish antennas. The 3,000 dish antennas monitor together, and use cloud technology to comprehensively compare and analyze the test results to reveal the mysteries of the universe to mankind.

Although SKA is still under construction, its sensitivity will be 50 times that of any radio telescope array currently on Earth, and its resolution will be 100 times that of the latter.

However, this does not mean that with SKA we can sit back and enjoy the SKA revealing the secrets of the universe for us - because SKA can only play an observation role. If we really want to produce conclusions and information with practical value, we still need to rely on computers to compare and analyze the information monitored by more than 3,000 dish antennas, integrate and calculate, and finally form the corresponding analysis results. Among these data, there are many factors such as earthquakes, meteorology, genes, and quantum computing. Not only do we need to conduct unilateral analysis, but we also need to conduct integrated analysis of multi-dimensional data, and the amount of calculation is extremely large. Not only that, in the analysis process, we also need to combine existing data for analogy, so that we can quickly classify unknown galaxies.

Although the monitoring effect of SKA is very strong, it is not easy to process the data monitored by SKA. The biggest feature of astronomy is the large amount of data. LAMOST generates 10TB of data per year; FAST generates 50TB of data per day; SKA generates 50TB of data per second. It is reported that the data monitored by SKA every day is as high as 960,000,000GB. This data may not seem to be a big deal, so let's put it another way and you will know how huge this data is - enough to fill 15 million 64GB iPods.

Analyzing such a huge amount of data is not an easy task. According to calculations, if you want to analyze this data, you need to build a supercomputer that can run 100 trillion times per second. However, the most powerful computer in the world can only reach one thousandth of this standard.

Fortunately, the emergence of cloud computing has made it easier to collaborate and utilize the underlying resources, and many things that were unimaginable in the past have now become a reality. With the help of cloud technology, thousands of supercomputers work together to analyze these monitoring data. Even without a supercomputer that can run 100 trillion times per second, the analysis work can be easily completed.

At present, cloud technology is relatively mature, and UCloud, a leading domestic cloud computing service provider, has achieved outstanding results in the field of cloud computing. At the same time, UCloud is also a supporter of the SKA project. By utilizing UCloud's advantages in cloud technology, it can not only connect the current supercomputers, reducing the high maintenance and management costs of multiple computers in the same room, as well as the cost of computing resources and storage resources required, but also search for other data based on UCloud's cloud platform during the analysis and calculation process, and analyze together with SKA's monitoring data, so that the results obtained are more accurate and effective.

In addition, with the help of UCloud's cloud technology, while analyzing SKA monitoring data, it is also possible to compare these data with existing data and point out aspects similar to known galaxies, making it easier for researchers to conduct analogical analysis during the research process.

Although we are still not sure whether aliens really exist, and although we currently know very little about the universe, with the powerful monitoring of SKA and the help of cloud computing, the veil of the universe will eventually be unveiled. If SKA is the key to our understanding of the universe, then cloud computing is the hand that turns the key.

In addition to being used for the exploration of the universe, cloud technology has applications in many fields. At present, my country is promoting the development of the information wave. Not only is the cloud service market developing at a high speed, but its landing areas are also extremely wide - cloud services can provide effective help in many fields such as ecology, forestry, medical health, and energy. Not only that, the "implementation of the national big data strategy" clearly proposed in the "13th Five-Year Plan" also determines the important position of cloud technology in our lives in the future - after all, big data cannot be separated from cloud technology. Under such circumstances, cloud computing companies represented by UCloud will also use their technological advantages to open up a new cloud life for us and help the high-tech industry promote human progress.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.